Police give the all clear after school placed on lockdown

HAZARD – An elementary school in Hazard was temporarily placed on lockdown Friday morning after a man was reported nearby carrying what appeared to be a firearm. Police have since given the all clear after the firearm was determined to be an air gun.

Deputy Chief Joe Engle said the Hazard Police Department received a call at 7:50 Friday morning from a parent reporting that the man, later identified as 19-year-old Joshua Turner of Hazard, was walking with what looked like an assault rifle near Roy G. Eversole Elementary. Authorities immediately placed the school on lockdown and responded to the area.

“We went house to house in the area he was last seen,” Engle said, but authorities later determined that Turner was carrying an air gun modeled to look like an assault rifle, and there were no other reports of incidents in the area.

Turner was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Engle said the department will post an officer at the school for the rest of the day as a precaution, but noted the school is no longer on lockdown.

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